What makes this man different?

Sybil...a lady with 13 personalities.

I was watching the movie Sybil. it’s about a woman who discovered she has at least 13 different personalities. She is basically insane, mentally disturbed. I then did some self-examination and concluded that I too have some personalities but the difference between Sybil and I is that I know of them and she didn’t. I think all of us have multiple personalities but don’t fall under the insanity branch. We react to different situations in different ways, meaning we don’t approach life the same way we did yesterday. We can cry now and then laugh seconds after that. We have the ability to change personalities just like that. The insane are similar to the sane; the difference is that the other group sees the others as insane.

Mafinzo with his green facial paint

Something triggered my mind from then. I am fascinated by mentally disturbed people, although I have agateophobia. Agateophobia is the fear of insane people. I would like to learn more on how they operate but I wouldn’t want to be in close contact with them. I am in a situation I can’t explain. I feel like they could do something bad to me and I can’t do anything about it because in their minds it’s possible that they’d think that what they were doing was sane and saw me as insane. What we deem as insane could be what they believe to be sane. 

Mafinzo with Silver facial paint

Most people from Kagiso know Mafinzo and we know him as the colourful insane citizen of our township. Mafinzo is a little different from us ….well maybe not a little different but more depending on how one sees him. He is regarded as crazy by the “normal” community, mostly because he wears differently and is fond of paint. He paints his head or face matching his shoes that look like they have a ball on top. His colours coordinate; the colour he paints on his head is the same colour he’ll paint on his shoes. His clothes are colourful and look like he enjoys the attention he gets when he walks on the streets. If you can have a conversation with him you can never tell whether he is insane or if he’s just playing with people, but then again he has been like this for years. Most of us like colour but we won’t do what he does because in our eyes, he is crazy. His “style or personality” is seen through colour. This if we put it in reality is what we call colour blocking. Everyone does it…He is passionate about colour and everyone who knows him will describe him as a colourful being. 

Mafinzo with white facial paint

I have also noticed that he talks to himself but that does no longer fit into the category of insanity. Most of us have found ourselves talking alone and immediately switching to a song when we realise that someone has seen us. I guess we the ‘sane people’ have similarities with ‘insane people’ we are just good at hiding it.  But then again, I guess insane people don’t switch their self-conversations with songs because in their world what they do is normal.

Colour blocking Mafinzo

So, what if we are all crazy but have not been diagnosed? What if insanity is the ultimate stage of freedom and we don’t know it? If I didn’t have fear of ‘insane’ people I’d probably be able to answer those questions by engaging with them. The main reason I am fascinated about them is that they do what they please and will never be questioned. Maybe for us (the ‘sane’) to achieve most things in life is to be like the ‘insane’. Live life freely, do what we want to do and don’t let anyone come between us and our goals. Who knows insanity might be the new sanity. 

Colour blocking facial paint.